Game Design Memo

Memorandum

 

To: Game Designers

 

From: Johnny Yang

 

Subject: Game Design Points based on McGonagall reading and class discussion

 

The following are ten points that I have within the McGonagall reading and class discussions that has peaked my interest and lead me to believe can serve a guiding points to the creation of a fun an fulfilling game that may serve whichever purpose a designer may choose.

 

1. The Game would need to encourage game play for with the main reward being that of being able to play the game.
2. The game allows for “trash-talking” as this gives and allows players to take pride in their game-play.
3. Incorporate some sort of “running game” element, where players do not necessarily have to be playing at the same time. (This is a great idea for a larger overall game that can be ongoing throughout the entire course of the other smaller games)
4. Connect the game(s) to the daily lives of the players in a way that players came learn things that goes beyond the game itself. (Such as a player learning where a specific service is, and because of the game the location of the service is known to the player(s) beyond the confines of the game itself should the player(s) need to access the service.)
5. Create an intrinsic value/importance to the game and the player’s relationship. (This allows players to want to spend those countless amounts of hours playing the game(s)).
6. Including and element where players can “self-train” or “train” their friend to become better at the game-play. (This would create and overall enjoyment of the game as a person can improve without the confines of risking loss through playing the actual game itself and or gain the enjoyment of seeing and helping their friend improve their game play to a specific level.)
7. “Forecasting Games” or as McGonagall calls it; “ Massively multiplayer foresight”. I fee that with this idea in mind we can create a type of game that allows players to address real world issues that will or may already directly affect them. As such, this type of gaming is based on such a focus since it requires the collaboration of a number of players to utilize their resources with the assistance of their imagination create ‘out of the box’ solutions to complete assigned tasks.
8. Games that allows failure without a large cost will keep players “optimistic” about their game play, however, should be challenging at a level where the objectives / goals are still attainable although will require more effort.
9. Multimodal game play was a thought that came up during the class discussion, although not explicitly stated the idea was present. The idea is to have a game that will incorporate both technology, and physical and mental efforts to achieve a given task.
10. A variety of game types to address the diverse range of students that can be both enjoyable to play and serve its purpose (each game type would address a specific purpose hidden within the game itself) in a manner that the players would not notice they are working towards a specific goal as the intent of the games would be that the players are immersed in the game itself and worry about the “prizes” after the completion. (The games can also be made to have explicit goals, however, with the goals being known I feel that the students would try to “hack” the game (which would be great!), it is that the thought that if they could hack a game with implicit goals would be more challenging and the end result be more satisfying.)

 

The latter points identified are for the consideration of game designers for the course. I have laid out specific points and ideas with brief thoughts of why I selected them. If it was not obvious, I feel that the points I have selected does reflect the types of attributes of game that I would find interesting and challenging, let alone spend numerous amount of time to complete. The ideas were intentionally left to be broad to give designers the flexibility to re-work in a manner that would best suit their needs.